Outside Optimax on Monday (17 May), I was sent a text that Jeremy Vine wanted people with dry eyes to email him for a 'phone in’ discussion on his BBC Radio 2 show that day
I knew he wouldn’t talk to me - remember when he asked Jeremy Vine On 5 viewers whether he should have laser eye surgery? I had called in and they wanted me to speak, but after being on hold for ages I was told they’d run out of time!
Details posted 3 May 2019.
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So I quickly asked my companions to email
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., but not to mention eye surgery as the cause of their dry eyes.
Four of them then received calls from the programme's researchers asking for brief details. Again not mentioning eye surgery, all were advised they might get a call back in the next 15 mins to speak on the show...
We planned that I would hijack the conversation given an opening, so when Aaron Winter's call came asking him to stand by, we rushed to my nearby car where it was quiet.
I was shaking like crazy, and had to reassure Aaron that it wasn’t due to nerves - I was running on pure adrenaline!
Waiting for at least 10 minutes - me worried that his phone would run out of battery, Aaron was finally told he was going on air!
Jeremy Vine asked him a few questions, and Aaron answered before handing his phone to me whilst JV was still chattering on...
The recording is self explanatory, and I was speaking fast because I expected to be cut off immediately - not sure why I wasn’t, but perhaps I was too quick for them!
You'll notice that JV didn't even acknowledge my existence, but at least Dr Sarah Jarvis agreed with me about government regulation!
Emails from Natasha Birch & Leigh Stace were mentioned, both with us at the demo - and we did laugh at Sarah Jarvis offering advice to Leigh when she had no idea why he has dry eyes!
She’s a female version of Hilary Jones, who knows everything about every medical problem - via Google and scribbled notes before going on chat shows as an 'expert’!
You can listen to the full discussion here...
Without naming the company, it was a blatant promo for Optical Express by Jenny Eclair - google her name + Lipiflow and see what you find!
She didn't mention that her Lipiflow treatment is of course free:
www.opticalexpress.co.uk/magazine/article/jenny-eclair
And until I found them yesterday, I’d forgotten that I'd replied to her tweets about OE and Lipiflow in 2018 - but today it appears she's deleted them!
Meanwhile , Sarah Jarvis was totally incorrect when she said that Lipiflow is a 'one off’ fix for dry eyes!
And her comment that you should only have eye surgery with nhs.uk trained ophthalmologists ignorant and uninformed!
Regardless of which, thrilled that I finally managed to get
My Beautiful Eyes Foundation mentioned on air, the BBC having cut so many of my interviews over the last five years!
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"More blatant censorship this morning!
I got through to Jeremy Vine On 5 at 9.30am, introduced myself, and was told my name had been mentioned by quite a few callers, and one of the programme's researchers would like to speak with me.
The researcher took plenty of details from me, said they’d definitely want me to speak on air, and would flag me up with the gallery (production team).
Another person then called, asking me to be available to speak at 10.15am, with a reminder not to mention any laser provider by name.
Next call at 10.15am, told they were about to put me through to Jeremy Vine, and to please only talk about my laser eye surgery, not my work as My Beautiful Eyes campaigner and patient advocate. Wtf?
Quickly biting my tongue I said OK, if that’s what you want… (fingers crossed behind my back!)
And then I waited... listening to the audio feed - wanting to scream at Sheila (NHS cataract surgery & laser for floaters) that she DID NOT have laser vision correction, and that LVC is NOT available on the NHS!
The exact words I said were, '
Unf*ckingbelievable - more bias!’, before I slammed the phone down on the person who came back to me to say sorry, they’d run out of time!